New Member - Iowa Hawkeyes Helmet Question

[BrianK]

First, great forums! I'm new to the hobby, and this is a terrific place to get an education. I'm becoming frustrated, though. There's WAY too much funny stuff that happens to helmets.

For recent stuff, it seems buying directly from the teams is the way to go. But even then, funny things happen. Here's an example:


The University of Iowa listed 7 helmets for sale on ebay. Five are already sold (they can be seen in the seller's completed listings), and two are still available for $255 each. But none of these helmets match anything used by the Hawkeyes in the past serveral years. The Big Ten stickers have not been used for a while from what I can tell. And the ANF (America Needs Farmers) decals are a different style than used currently. They look like ones that were previously placed on the back beside the numbers. In short, I have a theory:

These helmets were used during the 2009 season, including the Orange Bowl. They were then refurbished and used during practice for the 2010 season. But they were not needed for the games. Either the players switched to different helmets or they didn't make the team. So the helmets were sold off. In preparation for sale, someone slapped on some old decals that were lying around. Solid black helmets are not very exciting, I guess.

Two questions. First, does my theory sound plausible? And, if so, is there any collector value left? The helmets are no longer as used during 2009. And they're not decorated properly for 2010. Thoughts?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=360338869795

[BrianK]

Pics of one of the helmets in question.

[BrianK]

They listed another one today. What a mess. Tell me that's not a Riddell decal peaking out from behind the giant flag on this Schutt helmet. Sigh.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=360339137010

[helmets]

Yes, that is a Riddell sticker. That generally means that Riddell reconditioned the helmet. When Riddell reconditions helmets, they place their sticker on all of the helmets. Likewise, Schutt does the same thing when they (Circle Systems) reconditions a helmet.

I do agree with you however. It appears that someone is attempting to pull a fast one with the helmets. The numbers do not look correct to me - in addition to what you had pointed out. The gaps in the 4's, 8's, etc are too small. Likewise, the American flags on the helmets appear to be larger than those flags used on the on-field actual game Iowa helmets.

[FastLane80]

Maybe the new stickers is a part of the reconditioning?

Go Hawks btw